Mommy Monday: Baby Gear Selections

My husband and I got serious about our baby registries this weekend. We also decided, seeing as though this babe could join us in as little as eight weeks (ahhhh!!!!) to pick up some essentials. Elephant book ends and jungle rugs are cute, but maybe we should have a car seat in case he arrives early, ya know?!

We went to Pottery Barn Kids, Target and Babies R Us for a variety of price ranges, styles and brands.

The. Process. Was. Overwhelming.

There are no fewer than 50 options for something as simple as diaper wipes. Did we want natural? Organic? Fresh scent? Natural and organic with a fresh scent?! There are baby swings that vibrate. Baby swings that rock. Baby swings with additional toys attached. Or would you like the vibration/swing combo, but pay extra for the attached teething ring? Don't even get me started on how many varieties of nipple pads there are for breastfeeding mothers.  I mean, all I want is to not have milk stains on my bras and shirts, please!

At one point, we both looked at each other in near defeat, my husband pulling out his iPhone to look up product reviews as he saw my eyes tearing up. He consistently performs better under pressure than I do. While he remains rational, I contemplate knocking over displays when there are just simply too many choices (should I use my purse or my fist to mess this $&*! up?) I must make a face as I contemplate my frustrated destruction, because he immediately snaps into logical, rational action right as I get a solid grip on my purse for maximum effect!

Because when you don't know what your nipples will need, the most logical thing is to tear the store to shreds, y'all.

I don't understand why anyone needs SO. MUCH. STUFF. It's a baby! He'll need diapers, something to keep him warm, and consistent access to my chest. Why do people like having their entire homes run over with baby gear?! I'm a minimalist by nature (working on promoting these good habits in my husband...) and am not attached to "stuff." Therefore, our baby registry has 29 items of what we deemed were "essentials, nice-to-haves and wants" on it. Yes, all three categories covered in 29 items.

Like I mentioned, we did get our act together and actually make some purchases in addition to the registry creation. The thing we purchased that I'm really excited about is this car seat/stroller combo (see the car seat here - I couldn't for the life of me find a link to the system we bought. It's the Graco SnugRide Click Connect 35 transport system). It's amazingly light weight (I can pick up the stroller with one finger!) and everything clicks into and out of place. I plan on keeping the stroller in my trunk so I always have it while I run errands, the car seat base in my backseat and simply move baby around in the lightweight carrier. (I know, I know, "plans" are always great. I'll post an update  after he arrives to see if my plans were on par with reality!)

 

Graco ultra lightweight car seat and stroller

Graco has some of the best safety ratings in the industry, so we feel good about making this purchase. After baby boy outgrows the seat (he can use it up to 35 pounds) the stroller will still be functional to cart him around in. In fact, I even sat in it, to my husband's amusement or embarrassment (jury is still out...) and lemmetellya, I'm a bit more than the max weight this system reportedly supports so we'll easily get a few years of use out of this. I really like the fact that we were able to make "two purchases in one" with this system, that the car seat is so versatile it works with other stroller systems (we also picked up a BOB running stroller since we're both-big time outdoor runners - the car seat snaps right into it!), and that we can keep using it as baby boy grows.

Yay to a legitimate, simplified baby purchase!

All three baby transport items: Bob running stroller, Graco lightweight stroller and car set

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High Five for Friday!

Many of my favorite blogs do something called "High Five for Friday" where they recap five of their favorite things that happened during the week. So I'm jumping on the bandwagon, too!

The five greatest moments of the week:
1) Um, hello? I launched this blog! I futzed with the design for a good while, and finally decided that it didn't absolutely need to be perfect before I published the site. Also? I learned how to publish a site!

2) I was able to go shopping with a good friend, who is a teacher on spring break, and started making some headway on our nursery. Not only was it a blast to get out of the house, shop and have lunch with my girlfriend (which, upon quitting my job, was something that I thought I would have a lot more time to do... Not so!) but it's really fun to see my vision come together for our future baby boy!

Close-up of the elephant book ends I purchased for our jungle themed nursery

3) I chopped off FOUR INCHES of hair! I realize guys don't understand the significance of this feat, but ladies, I know you get me. While I love long hair on some people, especially you lovely ladies that have thick hair, I can't pull it off. Mid-length is about the longest I can go before I just have a scraggly, sad pony tail. The results of my stylist's chopping (and curling) skills:

Selfie after my cut and headshot photo's

4) I had my gestational diabetes test and 27 week checkup with my midwives on Wednesday. Upon drinking my "orange drink", baby boy started to straight up BOX my small intestine, so I think he liked it even less than I did! We'll get the test results back soon, but the midwife did manage to make my ENTIRE WEEK. Yeah, the whole thing. As she pulled up my shirt to squeeze that gel stuff  all over my belly for the Doppler machine to get baby's heartbeat, she exclaimed, "You have the cutest pregnant tummy! It's all baby. It's the shape that will go back to your pre-pregnant shape right away! I can tell you work out, you look simply fantastic."

Now, she may very well tell all her patients this to make them feel good, and that's a-ok with me. But she said it to me, and made me feel good about all the workouts I've been keeping up with while preggo and reinforced the results I'm hopeful for after baby, so HIGH FRIGGIN FIVE to her!

5) "Mommy Monday" has been, by far, my most visited/viewed post. That makes me so excited, because it's also my favorite post to write/create and the bulk of my content surrounds mama's and pregnancy, so I'm happy it's popular with y'all, too. Expect a great mommy post on Monday! If you need some entertainment before then, this twitter handle is HILARIOUS.

Happy Weekend readers! I hope you're all enjoying spring (spring has sprung in Dallas, but if you're further north, I hope it's improving for you) and will enjoy some time with your loved ones this weekend. See ya next week when I'm officially in my third trimester!